Bookings picked up in the last few weeks. Pricing improvement in Europe is slow. The company believes everything is going as planned in 2013.
"We are excited to announce another quarter of strong results, especially in light of this being our first quarter as a publicly traded company. These strong results bring us to nineteen consecutive quarters of year over year Adjusted EBITDA growth."
- Kevin Sheehan, Norwegian Cruise Line's President and CEO
CONF CALL NOTES
- Start to 2013 Wave Season was robust with strong onboard spend
- Caribbean/Hawaii performed well in 1Q.
- European ships increased from 1 to 2 ships in 1Q.
- IPO proceeds: raised $477.6 MM
- Onboard particularly strong in bar and short-excursion categories
- Pride dry-dock expected to be done by September
- Invested in scrubber technology to comply with EICA requirements; should be operational by year-end
- 2Q deployment schedule: 26% Caribbean, 23% in Mediteraran, 7% in Baltic, 7% in Hawaii, 12% Bermuda, 12% Alaska, 12% other
Q&A
- Triumph effect was only 'on the margin'
- Europe booking through the season is good. Pricing back to where they are hoping for.
- Last couple of weeks, booking levels exceeded what mgmt was looking for
- Caribbean is booking well
- Booking period has been extended
- Booking volume ex Breakaway YoY is pretty much where they're hoping to be
- Solid position in 4Q; 3Q is also looking well
- Do not want to provide 2H guidance color at this time
- Bookings 2014: higher volume and higher prices YoY
- 2013 % booked vs 2012: up mid-to-high single digits
- Triumph affected call volume in North America
- $0.01 of additional costs will swing into 2Q due to timing
- 2013 three drydocks: Pride, Pearl, and Sky
- The guidance range is due to uncertainty with Breakaway
- Alaska operating the way as expected
- European booking volume has accelerated in the last couple of weeks
- Confident that onboard spending will be strong on Breakaway
- Pricing: extremely strong pricing on Pride of America; Europe pricing starting to come back slowly
HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE RELEASE
- An increase in Net Yield, partially offset by lower Capacity Days primarily due to the planned Dry-dock of Pride of America, resulted in a 1.3% improvement in Net Revenue
- Net Yield increased 3.3%... on stronger overall pricing and increased onboard spend, particularly in the bar and shore excursion areas
- Adjusted Net Cruise Cost ex Fuel decreased 1.5%... mainly due to the timing of certain expenses.
- The first quarter included a portion of the Pride of America Dry-dock which extended into the second quarter. Incremental Dry-docks in subsequent quarters include Norwegian Pearl and Norwegian Sky.
- Interest expense, net for the period was $127.7 million and included $90.5 million in charges related to the prepayment of certain credit facilities and the redemption of certain of the Company's senior notes in connection with proceeds from both the Company's IPO and Notes Offering.
- On April 25, 2013, the Company took delivery of the newest ship in its fleet, the 4,000 passenger Norwegian Breakaway
- Norwegian Breakaway's sister ship, Norwegian Getaway, continues construction for an on-time delivery in January 2014
- As of March 31, 2013, anticipated capital expenditures for business enhancements were $57.2 million for the remainder of 2013, and $77 million for each of the years 2014 and 2015. As of March 31, 2013, anticipated capital expenditures for ship construction were $681.1 million for the remainder of 2013, $755.6 million for 2014 and $788.5 million for 2015, of which export credit financing is in place of $572.8 million for 2013, $657.1 million for 2014 and $621.1 million for 2015, based on the euro/U.S. dollar exchange rate as of March 31, 2013.
